Texas Rangers News: Jon Daniels is right, “half-measures” get us nowhere

Give Texas Rangers President of Baseball Operations Jon Daniels credit: when it came time to take the media exposure following the massive Joey Gallo trade to the Yankees, he stood there and took it.

It makes sense to put Daniels in that spot anyway, he’s basically the scapegoat for everything bad about the Texas Rangers and an easy target for fan anger. Though personally, I would’ve liked to have seen the kid gloves come off for Chris Young, who handled the Jack Leiter signing, and test his resolve amidst a potentially franchise-altering trade.

But the amount of Rangers fans who hate Jon Daniels is staggering, so sure, why not put the punching bag out there again.

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Look, we all have a right to be angry and sad over this trade. Joey Gallo is the kind of player you hope builds his entire career resume in Texas, especially since they haven’t drafted and developed many of those franchise players recently, though there are many promising talents in the minors. Including the four (Ezequiel Duran, Josh Smith, Trevor Hauver and Glen Otto) that the Rangers just acquired.

But at the same time, Gallo is unique. He’s not in the true “superstar” category, but he’s no scrub either. He’s a bona fide All-Star and Gold Glover and the Yankees will be improved for having him.

Therefore, what’s an organization like the Rangers to do? Extend him? Trade him? Stand pat? It was more complicated than you would like to think.

The Texas Rangers clearly didn’t have an easy time grappling with the Joey Gallo decision

According to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, the Texas Rangers saw Gallo as worth one price and his camp another.

"“Does that make him more Mookie Betts or Nick Castellanos? And therein lies the issue. The Rangers made a Castellanos-like offer: Five years and $84 million in guaranteed money, with escalators and incentives that could have carried the value over $100 million, according to sources.Boras sees something closer to Betts or to his own client, Bryce Harper. Average those deals out and we’re talking in the ballpark of about $350 million.That’s not a gap; it’s a chasm.”"

Yikes, that is a pretty big gap. And that’s precisely the dilemma the Texas Rangers were faced with.

I thought it was particularly important that Daniels reiterated the significance of not resorting to “half-measures” during a rebuild. That’s huge, because in case you haven’t noticed, the Rangers love to try being competitive during a window that doesn’t really exist (see Lynn, Gibson, Lyles Kluber and Minor prior to 2020).

A rebuild needs to be done the right way if one is going to work for the Texas Rangers

It was clear the 2020 Texas Rangers, short season or not, were not equipped to compete that season. They just weren’t deep enough or talented enough. Better to realize that sooner rather than later.

No one is saying rebuilds are fun. They’re often long and arduous, in fact. The Houston Astros are the classic example, losing 100+ games for three seasons in a row (2011-2013) before finally accumulating the type of talent base that has sustained a fruitful (if dishonest) run at contention.

But it’s also in the best interest of the Texas Rangers and their future to do things the right way